Adult

Clover Hendry hasn’t said “No” a day in her life. Until today. Normally a woman who tips her hairdresser even when the cut is hideous, is endlessly patient with her horrendous mother, and says “yes” every time her boss asks her to work late. Today, things are going to be very different. Because Clover is taking the day off. Today, she’s going to do and say whatever she likes, even if it means her whole life unravels. What made Clover change her ways? Why doesn’t she care anymore? There’s more to this day than meets the eye.

Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina. Joetta McBride and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising 15-year-old Henry and 11-year-old Robert on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy’s position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral. However, Joetta’s own father-in-law fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta’s frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home. But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son. Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her --- until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster.

The women of Picasso’s life are glamorous and elusive, existing in the shadow of his fame --- until 1950s aspiring journalist Alana Olson determines to bring one into the light. Unsure of what to expect but bent on uncovering what really lies beneath the canvas, Alana steps into Sara Murphy’s well-guarded home to discover a past complicated by secrets and intrigue. Sara paints a luxurious picture of the French Riviera in 1923, but also a tragic one. The more Sara reveals, the more cracks emerge in Picasso’s once-vibrant social circle --- and the more Alana feels a disturbing convergence with her own life. Who are these other muses? What became of them? What will become of her? Desperate to trace the threads, Alana dives into the glittering lives of the past. But to do so, she must contend with her own reality.

Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control. There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can't believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in herself --- to investigate what really happened from the inside. Battling her own addictions and figuring out the truth will be much more difficult than she imagined, far away from friends, family --- and anyone who could help her.

When a sudden crime wave hits several small midwestern towns, the U.S. Attorney for the region calls on Harry Duncan to investigate. The ex-cop is reluctant to go up against a widespread criminal organization. But the attorney in question is Ellen Leicester, the wife who left him 15 years earlier, and he can’t say no to her. Initially brought in as a consultant to determine if the racketeering is severe enough to require an all-out investigation by the FBI, Duncan quickly finds himself in conflict with a syndicate far more violent than first suspected. As the investigation develops, he begins compiling a “murder book,” the notebook in which a detective keeps records, interviews, photos --- everything he needs to build his case. But his scrutiny of the gang soon makes Duncan a target, as well as Ellen.

Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their 12-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion. But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears. Moving between the police investigation, a hospital room and the catastrophic weekend, THE SEARCH PARTY is about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.

Hidden Hills is a private celebrity enclave of white picket fences and horse trails that seems to exist in a dreamworld. But when reality superstar Kitty Winslow is killed within their gates and corpses are found in the vast state park outside them, LASD detective Eve Ronin realizes there is a deadly, razor-thin line between what’s real and what’s imagined. Eve discovers that Kitty’s surreal on- and off-camera life, a blur of fact and fantasy, shockingly mirrors her own as she struggles to investigate the killings, wade into a music industry war, and battle a vicious Chilean gang. Her grip on reality and the case is strained to the breaking point as the slayings continue, the media frenzy reaches a fever pitch, and the only inescapable truth she can see is death…and it’s coming for her.

For Julie, an elementary school librarian and mother of two boys, there was no time for debilitating anxiety. Yet the terrifying aftershocks of her first panic attack left her grappling with questions about the causes of her mental health crisis and where it would lead next. What follows is a hopeful, honest account of love and loss, a husband who can’t read minds, disastrous family outings, and finding a path (with help from loved ones and a few key new friends) to the joy of a well-lived life.

Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island’s small, close-knit community. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together was once all she needed. But now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those who would cast her out. One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael. Yet her careful illusion suddenly begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a new life from the pieces that remain. Her choices ripple through generations, across continents and into the depths of the sea.

Raised --- and often neglected --- by a wayward mother, Rose finally has built the life she’s always wanted. Her sister Cecilia, on the other hand, has spent her life in pursuit of fairy-tale narratives of transcendence and true love. When Cecilia declares she’s come home for good, following the ending of a whirlwind marriage, Rose hopes Cecilia finally might be ready to face adulthood. But then Cecilia gets involved with the Avalon, a cultish-sounding cabaret troupe, and soon vanishes --- one of a growing number of suspicious disappearances among the city’s lost and loneliest souls. The only way Rose can find Cecilia is by tracking down the Avalon herself. But as Rose gets closer to solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, the Avalon works its magic on her, too.